Rebalancing Civil Engineering Education to Address Social Aspects of Sustainability

Abstract

Civil engineering students learn to analyze, design, and build to meet the needs of human society, which is dynamic in nature. The concept of a more sustainable and resilient human-centered development resonates with many people and has caused a global shift of focus to a three-part sustainability concept incorporating economic, social, and environmental aspects. Are civil engineering students educated on those significant movements? A structured literature search is performed to examine current research on the topic of integrating sustainability into civil engineering curricula. This paper reports that environmental aspects of sustainability in civil engineering education are noted twice as frequently as the social and economic aspects of sustainability. Evidence suggests that economic aspects, while noted less frequently, are embedded in current engineering decision-making practices. However, there are no consistent metrics for including and evaluating social aspects into civil engineering education in analysis, design, and construction. This unbalanced approach will continue to undermine future civil engineers and their impacts in the built environment. This paper argues for changes in the ways sustainability, and in particular social aspects, are included within civil engineering curricula.